Gamebook Mapping Guide

Mapping in Gamebooks is not a requirement, but, it'll help you a lot in some adventures. You might even find it fun!

In some Gamebooks, like Fighting Fantasy or Lone Wolf, once you die, you'll need to restart the book from the beginning, which might be frustrating for some, but, it'll give you the incentive to explore and find different routes and items.

However, to know which routes to use or not to use in a second or third playthrough, you should be mapping the roads you traveled and decisions you made, so, next time you know where a difficult enemy, rare item, or even a deadly trap is! It'll also help you visualize your journey, and see how the "world map" of the Gamebook your reading unfolds. This is also part of the fun when reading a Gamebook.

Don't worry, you don't need any sort of drawing skills, just a sheet of paper and a pencil!

Everyone maps their own way, I'll try to explain a very basic way that works for any kind of Gamebook.

Usually, you'll start at entry #1, so, just add #1 to one of the sides of the paper (I usually recommend the bottom of your paper). Add some small context, in this case, for example, the story starts inside a tavern.

Then, after a short intro, the book will give you the first choice, in this case:
- If you want to go outside, go to entry 250
- If you want to talk with the hooded man at the counter, go to entry 100

We choose to talk with the hooded man, so, we draw a small line in one direction, add #100, and write some context, like, the hooded man.

Leave some space on the other side, since next time you read the book from the start, you might want to choose the other option, in this case, go outside without talking to the hooded man.

Continuing our adventure, the hooded man wishes to help you and offers you a potion, will you:
- Accept the potion, go to entry 95
- Reject and go outside, go to entry 250

Since we didn't travel, and this is just a contextual choice in the same place, usually, there is no need to add anything else to the map for now... let's choose first. In this example, let's choose the potion, and see what happens.

At the exact moment you grab the potion, the hooded man suddenly grabs a hidden dagger, stabs your leg, and runs really fast out of the tavern. You lose 1 health and get 1 Potion of Invisibility. You decide to leave the tavern, go to entry 250.

Now you know what happens when you choose to accept the potion, so, add all of that information to that entry on the map, #100, and since we left the previous location, add #250 to your map.

Continue doing this, and when you start your second playthrough you'll know which path to choose, increasing your chances of succeeding!

You can also add some context to your map with some simple iconography

Some Gamebooks, like Fabled Lands, are open-world, meaning, you'll be all around the map exploring locations, so, in these types of Gamebooks, the previous examples don't work that well.

If you do everything correctly, when you finish your adventure, you'll have a map that will look something like this one from Fighting Fantasy - Island of the Lizard King.

In open-world Gamebooks, you usually try to copy the shape of the Gamebook's map to your sheet of paper, then write the entry numbers on the locations on the map, alongside the other entries connected to that location. Add some short text to each entry, like a village/city name, cavern, tower, point of interest, specific character, item... etc...

If you do this correctly, you'll never feel lost. Here is an example from the first Vulcanverse book (which is not recommended for beginners).

You can use these basic tricks with any Gamebook that suggests you to map your adventure. Gamebooks like the DestinyQuest series don't require you to map since there is no perma-death and the books are very linear. Books like Legendary Kingdoms, also don't require mapping, however, if you go into some dungeons in those books, you will need to map out the dungeon, or you'll be lost inside it and you won't be able to find the way out.

Hope this was helpful! If you have any questions or suggestions, feel free to comment!